In recent years, mobile wireless communications have become increasingly popular. Initial implementations of mobile wireless communications, for example in the form of cellular telephone networks, supported circuit switched voice communication services. Mobile voice telephone communication is now ubiquitous in many countries, and mobile services are replacing fixed landline service even for traditional voice telephone calls. However, for many years now the mobile service offerings have extended far beyond the traditional voice telephone call model.
For example, the mobile carriers developed short messaging service (SMS) technology to provide text and/or email communications via the wireless communication networks. As the public wireless communication networks have evolved to provide greater bandwidth and packet based services, the industry has developed a variety of data services, such as web browsing, as well as a variety of services using multimedia messaging service (MMS) technology. Many of the messaging services such as SMS and MMS support message traffic between mobile stations, e.g. for message exchange between users. However, these popular messaging services also support traffic between mobile stations and server equipment from which service providers offer users a variety of different types of application services.
In a public wireless mobile communication network that offers one or more of the SMS or MMS type messaging services, each wireless subscriber device typically is assigned a valid telephone number, often referred to as a Mobile Directory Number or MDN. The MDN, for example, is used as a destination address to terminate call routing for call delivery and/or for message delivery. The MDN may also be used to identify the subscriber and verify subscription profile information during communications through the network.
A mobile messaging service type message, such an SMS message, includes source and destination address fields. For messages from a user device, the source address is the mobile directory number (MDN) of the sending user's mobile station. The destination address may be a MDN of a destination station or some other form of recognizable address. Of note for purposes of this discussion, when the message relates to a particular application service, the destination address is an address of the server equipment hosting the application, typically, in the form of a short code assigned to the particular application.
If the message originates at such an application server, the destination address would be a MDN of an intended mobile station destination, and the source address would be the short code assigned to the application service or the service provider. For a message addressed to a mobile station, the network routes the message based on the MDN of the intended destination as the routing address, that is to say all the way through to the addressed mobile station. For a message addressed to a service provider, the mobile station initially inserts the short code in the message as the destination address. However, the network translates the source short code in the message into an actual destination address, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the appropriate server, replaces the short code with the translated address, and routes the message to the server based on the translated address.
With these address and routing techniques, one source address (MDN or short code) is used to route each message to one corresponding destination. However, there are situations where it may be desirable to vary the routing or redirect a message to an alternate destination, including variations with regard to multiple destinations and/or sources on the application service side. Past proposals for redirection or forwarding have addressed SMS messages addressed to the mobile stations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,880 describes one method for forwarding SMS messages addressed to the mobile stations, although the alternate destination may be another “on network” mobile terminal or may be “off network” such as a mobile terminal on another network or a phone or other device at a public switched telephone network (PSTN) destination. This type of approach does not really address situations relating to multiple application service providers, e.g. providing the same service but using separate equipment. Also, it appears the network's message centers are the key elements for resolving the location of the forwarding destination. As the number of messaging service messages carried by mobile communications networks continues to increase, the burden placed on the messaging service centers also increases. Resolving the message forwarding destination at the message center may decrease the center's ability to provide other services, e.g. related to its basic message storage and delivery functions.
However, there are situations when the forwarding or redirection of messages may actually relate to messages from mobile devices directed toward the application service provider(s), and scenarios that give rise to a need for redirection of messages addressed to such service providers may also create issues regarding messages coming from the multiple service providers. To understand these types of concerns, it may be helpful to consider a specific application service that has encountered these kinds of message addressing and routing problems.
In recent years, automotive companies and their partners have developed increasingly sophisticated telematics systems to detect an emergency condition or activation, and in response, initiate a call to a call center for assistance. Similar systems have also been developed for monitoring fixed customer premises locations or personnel at a specific site. For motor vehicle applications, for example, an on-board system monitors one or more sensors to determine when a crash or other emergency has occurred. Upon detecting an emergency condition, such as a crash, the on-board system activates a cellular transceiver to initiate a cellular communications with a call center of the telematics service provider (TSP). Although a voice call typically is provided, the communications include a data communication of information such as location determined by global positioning satellite (GPS) processing, identification data and crash related data. The voice call may follow the data transmission, essentially using the same communication resources through the network. However, some implementations use existing mobile network messaging services, such as SMS, to provide the requisite data communications for the telematics service.
In the emergency report type telematics service outlined above, the mobile device of the telematics unit in the vehicle sends one or more messages, typically using SMS, using a short code assigned to the telematics service. The mobile network routes each such message to a telematics service provider, typically to a data server associated with the provider's call center, in the same manner as any other upstream message transmission to an application service provider. In addition to the emergency reporting services, the call center service providers have started offering services that involve downstream data transmissions to the mobile device in the vehicle, such as turn-by-turn directions. The server of the provider sends each message addressed to the mobile device, typically using the MDN of the mobile device as the destination address and the short code of the provider/application as the source address, as in other application services that utilize SMS and/or MMS type delivery services. A situation has arisen, however, in which services corresponding to one short code are actually supported by two different service providers and their associated server and call center equipment.
An auto company Auto-CO offers telematics service to end-user owners of their vehicles. The Auto-CO initially utilizes a company CO-A to provide the call center service but wants to change to a second vendor we will call company CO-B. Due to contractual obligations to service provider CO-A, for a time, at least some of the existing customers will stay with company CO-A but new customers' service will go to company CO-B. This presents a problem because all of the devices currently send all of the messages from the vehicles to CO-A, using a single address, e.g. a single short code assigned to the server(s) of company CO-A. When company CO-B comes on line, the SMS messages from some devices need to be routed to the server or servers for CO-B, but some still need to go to equipment of service provider CO-A, even though the messages will all be addressed to the same location or short code.
In this scenario, at least during some transitional period, both telematics service provider platforms will be supporting service to/from the devices in Auto-CO's vehicles. However, hardware constraints prevent the configuring of new short codes on the telematics devices in the vehicles. Hence, there is a need for an intelligent routing solution that can route messages to equipment of either of the telematics entities based on some criteria, such as the identity of the vehicle/device. It is believed that a similar need exists or the intelligent solution may provide advantages in the context of other types of application services that utilize mobile messaging service type message transport via a wireless/mobile communication network.